'World travel' at Vienna's largest tourism fair

Vienna’s annual tourism fair „Ferienmesse“ Vienna is a hot destination for holiday seekers throughout the city and surrounding areas – and a great place to see the industry in action.  A large group of MU bachelor and master students had the unique chance to visit booths and meet representatives from different destination marketing organizations, tour operators, travel agencies, and airlines, and to network and exchange contacts.

Petra Tschöll, MSc student, attended a presentation held by Austrian Airlines on service quality offered on board Austrian Airlines flights. ‘’The Head of Cabin Crew Training, Christian Unterberger, demonstrated the training process each cabin crew member has to complete. Their main focus is on creating a unique experience for all passengers on short, medium and long haul flights. Perfectly trained stewardesses and stewards should not only make a flight as pleasant as possible but also know how to deal with any potential case of emergency. This presentation offered great insights into how much importance such a large company attaches to service quality in daily customer contact situations,’’ she said.

Bachelor students Nicole Börner and Victoria Felser were impressed by their first Ferienmesse, “it was a huge event with many tour operators, airline companies, hotel chains, individual travel businesses etc. presenting themselves and offering special packages and treatments. Some of them we hadn’t heard of before, therefore it was very interesting to find out about various new companies and to learn about different destinations and businesses all around the world. All in all, we think the fair was for both visitors and exhibitors a great success, and we are very much looking forward to visiting the event next year.”

Not only current students attended the fair - faculty and alumni were also on hand at this major tourism event. Alumnus Cem Meric, BBA ’13, is Assistant Manager in Sales and Marketing in Jacaranda Hotel Belek & Club Magic Life in Anatalya, Turkey, and was representing the luxury club.

MU President Karl Wöber moderated two sessions of the ‘Data Lab’ discussing the MU-developed platform TourMIS, and Prof. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher was a podium guest at the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) discussion ‘’Im Fokus: Nachhaltigkeitszertifizierungen von Destinationen’’ (In Focus: Sustainability Certification for Destinations).